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Can Well Site Automation Improve Facility Safety?

Safety is a critical factor for oil and gas well sites. If dangerous situations occur, and no one detects them, lives could be lost, people could be hurt, and extensive property damage can occur. With potential dangers, constant vigilance is critical. Well site automation can help monitor for potential problems and alert to potential threats.

Oil And Gas Leaks

The central purpose of a well site is the extraction of oil and/or natural gas. Both products are potentially explosive if they start leaking. Any leak needs to be found and fixed as soon as possible to prevent problems. Well site automation can be set up with detectors that report leaks quickly to a central monitoring site. This will trigger the dispatch of a repair crew and prevent larger problems.

Safety Equipment Failures

There are many safeguards in place on a typical oil or gas well site. From safety valves to fire detectors, every piece of equipment is critical. Well site automation can be set up to monitor the safety equipment and detect any issues quickly. As with oil or gas leaks, quick dispatch of a repair crew can address the safety equipment failure and prevent bigger problems.

Sabotage And Intruders

Some safety issues come from the outside. Sabotage is one of those things that doesn't happen very often, but it poses a real threat to the site and anything surrounding it. Some sabotage is done without a specific intent, other than just doing damage. Other forms of sabotage have a more sinister intent. The damage done, however, doesn't recognize intent.

Security cameras and motion detectors, integrated into the well site automation, can help detect the presence of intruders and alert the monitoring center. The system can trigger a call to the police and dispatch a crew to assess the damage and make repairs.

Other Trespassers

Sometimes, an intruder is not really there to do damage. It may be an act of complete oblivion on the part of wildlife. Many well sites are in remote areas where animals far outnumber the human population. A herd of deer or a couple of cows can do damage without any intent.

The same security cameras and motion detectors can detect non-human intruders as well as human ones.

Well site automation can help detect these problems and many more. The automation experts at Champion Automation can do all the work. We can design, install, test, and implement wellsite automation, and whether you use our cloud-based system, or you have your own internal system, we can help get the critical remote information to the appropriate personnel. Give us a call today.